Religious Temporal Seasonality in tourism: insights from Indonesia’s Ramadan-Eid cycle

Tourism scholarship has long recognised the seasonal organisations of mobility, yet the influence of religiously structured time remains insufficiently theorised. This study examines how Ramadan-Eid cycles shape inbound tourism flows in Indonesia and demonstrates that religious temporality generates a recurrent contraction during Ramadan followed by a rebound during Eid al-Fitr. Using a descriptive time-series analysis of monthly inbound arrival data from the first fully stabilised post-pandemic years (2023–2025), the study identifies a temporally shifting pattern aligned with the Islamic lunar calendar, suggesting that these fluctuations are rooted in culturally embedded behavioural rhythms rather than solely in climatic or institutional divers. Building on these insights, the study advances the concept of Religious Temporal Seasonality to describe how ritual time constrains and subsequently reactivates mobility. By positioning religious time as a meaningful temporal structure, the article extends existing seasonality theory and invites a broader consideration of how culturally grounded temporalities organise tourism flows across diverse destinations.